HD 

72U 

.G.7 


IRLF 


Sfll    DSD 


Social    Service    Series 

Welfare   Work    by 
Corporations       GO** 


The  Interest  of  Each 
It  the  Concern  of  All 


WELFARE  WORK 
BY    CORPORATIONS 


a/ 

Mary  Lathrop  Goss 


Published  for  the  Social  Service  Commission  of  the 
Northern  Baptist  Convention 

SHAILER    MATHEWS 

Dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  University  of  Chicago 

Chairman  of  the  Editorial  Committee 


American  Baptist  Publication  Society 

Philadelphia 

Boston  Chicago 

St.  Louis  Toronto,  Can. 


Copyright  1911  by 
A.  J.  ROWLAND,  Secretary 

Published  June,  1911 


.•'•'. :  I 


WELFARE  WORK  BY 
CORPORATIONS 


What  the  term  "welfare  work"  means. 

A  common  salutation  among  busy  men  is,  "  Well, 
how  goes  it  ?  "  The  interest  expressed  by  the  neigh- 
bor finds  its  way  into  the  industrial  community  and 
into  our  terminology  of  to-day  through  the  verbal 
vehicle — "  welfare  work  " — applied  to  organized 
thought  and  effort  for  the  "  well-faring/'  or 
"  good  going  "  in  industry.  Synonymous  with  wel- 
fare, technically,  one  reads  "  happiness,"  "  pros- 
perity," and  Americans  in  seeking  for  a  word  or 
phrase  that  should  aptly  define  in  English  what 
the  Germans  long  ^go  called  "  wohlfahrtseinrich- 
tungen,"  interchange  "  industrial  betterment,"  "  bet- 
terment work,"  or  "  welfare  work."  At  a  national 
conference  a  few  years  ago  it  was  defined  as  "  that 
sort  of  human  interest  which  tends  to  promote  in- 
dustrial efficiency." 

One  man,  mistaking  the  term  for  the  charity 
which  is  almsgiving,  says,  "  I  don't  believe  in  your 
welfare  work;  give  me  my  wages,  and  I  will  look 

3 


238221 


4  Social  Service  Series 

after  my  own  welfare."  Just  a  misunderstanding 
of  the  word  that  is.  Say  to  him,  "  We  both  tread 
this  road,  let's  make  it  better";  his  response  is 
ready,  "  Sure,  I'm  with  you."  Welfare  then  takes 
on  a  different  color;  it's  "good  going"  and  "to- 
gether." 

Another  manufacturer  says,  "  Oh,  this  welfare 
work,  I  haven't  any  patience  with  it — just  '  pink 
teas  and  frills.'  "  But  he  will  show  you  through 
his  factory,  pointing  out  with  pride  the  ventilating 
systems  and  the  plans  for  distributing  drinking 
water,  and  the  sanitary  workrooms,  and  while  we 
exclaim,  "But  you  are  doing  welfare  work!"  he 
deprecates  the  term  and  says,  "  Why,  this  is  just 
common  sense." 

So  it  goes  with  the  name  which  to  many  is  a 
misnomer,  but  to  the  social  student  is  OPPORTUNITY 
in  letters  of  gold. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  article,  we  shall  dignify 
the  term  by  using  its  fullest  familiar  sound  not 
as  a  dress,  but  as  a  vehicle ;  not  as  a  furbelow,  but 
as  a  field,  and  we  shall  with  cheerful  optimism  ask 
of  the  unwritten  records  of  the  men  and  women 
of  the  corporations  at  work,  "  How  goes  it?  " 


German  colony  housing. 

The  origin  of  different  activities  or  institutions 
affecting  the  working  and  social  environment  of  men 
and  women  who  earn  their  livelihood  in  factories, 
workshops,  mines,  or  railroads  is  in  Europe.  Twenty 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  5 

or  more  years  ago  the  great  steel  works  of  Fred- 
erick Krupp  &  Company,  at  Essen,  Germany,  af- 
forded conspicuous  examples  of  many  phases  of  wel- 
fare work. 

The  men  of  this  family  maintained  close  per- 
sonal relations  with  their  workmen  and  co-operated 
fully  in  the  work  of  building  the  thirteen  colonies 
which,  in  1902,  were  incorporated  in  one  body. 

One  of  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which 
the  Krupps  worked  was  that  charity — as  contribu- 
tions— merely  increased  dependence,  carelessness, 
and  incompetence,  but  mutual  helpfulness  was  a 
divine  obligation. 

The  employer  there  is  landlord,  and  it  is  said  that 
leaders  among  the  workmen  support  the  theory 
of  the  Krupp  colony  management  that  it  is  not 
advisable  for  the  workmen  to  own  their  homes, 
that  a  single  ownership  by  the  firm,  which  is  satis- 
fied with  a  two-per-cent.  earning  on  its  investment, 
gives  the  landed  proprietor  the  power  to  enforce 
rules  of  order  and  cleanliness,  promote  educational 
work,  and  keep  out  undesirable  elements.  At  Alten- 
hof,  the  newest  colony,  one  hundred  and  sixty 
cottages,  and  twenty-four  two-roomed  apartments 
for  widows,  supply  free  homes  for  invalid  and  dis- 
abled workmen. 

One  colony  consists  of  six-family  apartment 
houses,  another  has  five  hundred  houses  arranged 
to  accommodate  one,  two,  or  six  families,  and 
Friedrichshof  is  beautiful  with  but  two  hundred 
single-family  cottages  of  three  to  five  rooms.  Un- 


6  Social  Service  Series 

married  workmen  are  housed  in  a  four-story  brick 
barracks,  with  a  capacity  of  eighteen  hundred,  resi- 
dence being  compulsory  unless  the  young  man  is  with 
near  relatives.  There  are  also,  for  the  better  paid 
workmen,  two  bachelor  homes,  where  the  boarders 
choose  the  manager  from  their  group  and  share 
costs,  and  in  the  town  of  Essen  the  Krupps  own 
many  houses,  which  are  let  to  groups  of  unmar- 
ried workmen,  all  under  central  supervision. 

The  well-equipped  public  schools  are  supple- 
mented by  a  private  school,  free  to  workmen's 
children.  Stress  is  laid  on  the  industrial  training 
of  girls,  and  the  housekeeping  school  of  the  Krupps 
is  a  notable  success.  It  costs  the  firm  about  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  which  is  considered  a  good 
investment,  in  the  preparation  of  the  girls  to  manage 
homes  so  well  as  to  conduce  toward  making  efficient 
and  contented  workmen. 

There  is  a  casino  and  a  gymnasium,  supply  stores, 
and  a  hospital,  eating-houses  and  bathhouses,  small 
library,  study-rooms,  apprenticeship  plans — more  or 
less  compulsory — and  workmen's  insurance,  pen- 
sions, and  savings  institutions,  doctors,  and  nurses. 
Toward  many  of  these  things  slight  fees  are  re- 
quired from  the  employees,  and  the  insurance  plan 
is  now  an  enlargement  upon  the  government  com- 
pulsory system,  by  means  of  which  all  three  in- 
icd  contribute,  t.  e.,  the  employee,  the  employer, 
and  the  State. 

In  a  labor-bulletin  report  on  this  firm  some  years 
ago  tliis  statement  is  found:  "  As  regards  the  effect 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  7 

of  the  expense  entailed  upon  the  firm  by  its  vari- 
ous social  enterprises,  the  firm  is  emphatic  in  its 
statement  that  it  has  been  more  than  repaid  by  the 
better  class  of  working  men  which  they  have  been 
able  to  obtain  and  retain,  and  the  absence  of  fric- 
tion between  the  management  and  its  personnel." 
This  is  testimony  valuable  and  to  the  point. 


The  experiment  in  Budapest. 

The  institutions  of  the  Royal  Hungarian  Machine 
Factory  of  the  State  Railroad,  Budapest,  are  many 
and  varied.  A  workmen's  colony  was  started  in 
1869,  adjacent  to  the  machine  factory,  consisting  of 
both  one  and  two-story  dwelling-houses  with  from 
six  to  eight  family  apartments  in  each.  An  inn 
with  a  workmen's  dining-room  is  centrally  located, 
and  meals  may  be  brought  in  or  sent  by  relatives. 
Small  portable  ranges  are  provided  for  the  purpose 
of  warming  food  as  well  as  serving  to  heat  the 
room.  An  orchestrion,  driven  by  electricity,  fur- 
nishes music,  and  a  stage  is  ready  for  speech- 
making  or  amateur  entertainments.  A  singing  club 
or  choral  society  is  maintained  by  the  factory  free 
of  expense — space  and  all  necessaries  being  fur- 
nished. There  are  two  gardens  with  skittle-alleys 
and  a  roofed  hall. 

A  reading-room  with  library  is  maintained  at 
the  expense  of  the  factory,  a  kindergarten  is  open 
for  the  children  of  the  work  people,  and  a  special 
Apprentices'  Technical  School. 


8  Social  Service  Series 

The  factory  has  a  well-equipped  consulting  room, 
with  surgeons  and  a  medical  assistant  in  attend- 
ance. To  avoid  the  spreading  of  skin  diseases  or 
other  infections,  a  patented  disinfection  apparatus 
is  at  disposal  for  cleaning  and  disinfecting  machin- 
ists' clothes.  A  sanitarium,  capable  of  housing  one 
hundred  patients,  was  built  in  1908  for  the  care  of 
all  tubercular  or  bronchial  cases  that  might  occur 
among  their  workmen. 

Suction  devices  are  employed  for  removing  smoke 
and  gases,  dust  from  grinding  machines,  and  other 
impurities  from  the  air  in  the  workshops. 

During  the  summer  months  soda-water  is  dis- 
tributed free  of  charge,  manufactured  at  the  plant, 
and  in  wintertime  or  on  night  shifts  tea  is  sup- 
plied at  cost  price — four  hellers  a  cup.  (Five 
hellers  equals  one  penny.) 

The  fire-brigade  is  maintained  and  trained  by 
the  factory,  all  the  members  are  workmen,  and  spe- 
cial recompense  is  given  them. 

Workmen  in  service  three  years,  who  have 
reached  the  age  of  thirty-two,  can  claim  an  eight- 
day  vacation  every  year,  experts  receiving  full  pay 
and  day-laborers  sixty  per  cent.  At  Christmas, 
festivities  are  always  arranged  for  the  children,  and 
clothing  and  presents  given  them  as  a  factory  ex- 

The  company  provides  a  pension  fund  to  workmen 
permanently  disabled  who  are  of  good  conduct  and 
have  done  good  service,  and  an  accident  fund  pro- 
vides for  workmen  disabled  by  accidents. 


Welfare  Work  fe  Corporations 


In  Russia. 


In  Russia  one  finds  many  auxiliary  movements 
connected  with  the  factories,  looking  toward  better 
things  for  the  employees,  which  could  not  in  that 
country,  under  its  present  government  and  tradi- 
tions, be  acquired  by  individual  effort. 


In  France. 

France  makes  a  conspicuous  contribution  to  wel- 
fare at  the  famous  store — the  Bon  Marche — owned 
and  managed  until  her  death  by  Madame  Boucicault. 
A  joint  stock  company  was  founded,  and  a  com- 
prehensive plan  devised  by  which  employees  could 
purchase  shares. 

The  Provident  Fund  is  kept  up  by  yearly  sums 
deducted  by  the  company  from  its  profits,  and  after 
five  years  in  service,  all  employees  become  participa- 
tors in  this  savings  fund,  personal  accounts  being 
opened  and  interest  added  at  four  per  cent. 

A  retiring  Pension  Fund  was  endowed  by  Madame 
Boucicault  in  1886,  and  female  workers  are  entitled 
to  a  share,  on  reaching  forty-five  years  of  age 
with  twenty  years  of  service,  men  at  fifty  with 
same  service.  The  minimum  pension  is  six  hun- 
dred francs,  or  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars, 
and  the  maximum  fifteen  hundred  francs,  or  three 
hundred  dollars.  No  deductions  from  wages  are 
made  either  for  this  fund  or  for  the  Provident 
Fund. 


10  Social  Service  Series 

In  the  great  store  there  are  many  signs  of  care 
for  the  employees.  All  the  employees  receive  the 
noon  luncheon  free  in  the  extensive  dining-rooms 
on  the  third  floor,  where  five  thousand  five  hun- 
dred assemble  daily  in  separate  rooms  for  men  and 
women.  The  dinner  consists  of  meat,  vegetables, 
dessert,  and  a  bottle  of  wine  or  beer. 

Women  employees  who  have  no  families  in  Paris 
are  housed  in  an  annex  at  the  expense  of  the  com- 
pany. A  rest-room,  library,  piano,  and  games  are 
provided.  Coffee,  milk,  and  chocolate  are  served  in 
the  morning  without  charge. 

A  doctor  gives  free  consultations  daily.  Free 
lessons  in  foreign  languages  are  given,  and  distin- 
guished pupils  in  the  English  class  are  sent  to  Lon- 
don for  several  months  to  perfect  their  knowledge. 

There  is  a  choral  society  and  a  musical  organiza- 
tion, called  the  "  Harmony,"  quite  famous  in  Paris. 

The  announcement  at  the  time  of  instituting  the 
Provident  Fund  shows  the  spirit  and  principle  which 
continues  to  actuate  the  directory  in  their  many 
forms  of  welfare:  "We  are  desirous  at  the  same 
time  of  clearly  demonstrating  to  them  the  close 
solidarity  which  should  attach  them  to  the  firm. 
They  will  better  understand  that  activity  in  their 
work,  the  care  of  the  firm's  interests,  the  economy 
of  the  material  placed  at  their  disposal,  are  all 
duties  which  turn  to  each  one's  benefits." 

All  over  Europe  manufacturers  have  been  intro- 
ducing into  their  factories  and  workshops  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  improvements  conducive  to  the 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  /  / 

comfort,  health,  and  well-being  of  employees  and 
extending  their  interest  to  the  outside  environments 
and  opportunities  which  fill  up  the  remaining  cycle 
of  a  man's  life  after  the  bread-earning  portion  of 
the  day  is  spent. 


In  England. 

Of  the  happy,  full  life  of  the  employees  of  Lever 
Brothers,  Limited,  at  Port  Sunlight,  England,  one 
could  write  volumes,  but  all  their  welfare  work  may 
be  suggested  by  the  name  of  their  works  magazine 
— "  Progress."  It  tells  you  of  long-service  awards, 
of  suggestion-bureau  prizes,  apprenticeship  cer- 
tificates, medical  examinations,  sick  clubs,  boys' 
brigade,  amateur  theatricals,  gymnastics,  swimming, 
Sunday  classes,  and  music  recitals. 

At  Bourneville,  where  the  Cadbury  Brothers  have 
made  cocoa  since  1879,  one  finds  a  most  beautiful 
village,  founded  by  George  Cadbury  and  devoted  to 
the  working  people  of  the  great  cocoa  industry. 

The  solution  of  the  housing  problem  has  received 
an  admirable  contribution  in  this  suburban  district, 
administered  by  a  village  council  of  which  the  elect- 
ive members  are  all  the  workmen  who  are  practical 
owners  by  virtue  of  ninety-nine-year  leases. 

The  beauty  of  the  factory  grounds  is  famous, 
and  in  all  their  working  plans  the  corporation  regards 
three  essentials — cleanliness,  health  of  the  workers, 
efficiency,  and  their  happiness  as  well.  The  most 
modern  hygienic  ideals  are  realized.  Spacious,  well- 


12  Social  Service  Series 

lighted  workrooms,  pure  atmosphere  by  thorough 
ventilation,  washable  uniforms,  dining-rooms  with 
meals  at  cost,  rest-rooms,  ambulance  corps,  recrea- 
tion grounds,  compulsory  gymnastics  for  boys, 
swimming-baths,  libraries,  technical  classes,  domestic 
science  school,  clubhouse  for  office  staff,  brass  band, 
musical  society,  camera  club,  fire-brigade,  annual 
outings,  pension  funds,  suggestion  scheme,  works 
magazine,  sick  benefit  plan,  youths'  club,  and  savings 
fund,  all  form  a  part  of  the  working  life  as  well  as 
the  making  of  the  living,  and  it  is  fully  co-opera- 
tive, not  put  on  as  a  decoration,  but  put  with  the 
work  as  a  necessary  and  integral  part. 

Progressive  manufacturers  and  railroad  and  min- 
ing corporation  managers  of  America  and  Canada 
traveling  abroad  to  study  shop  and  field  methods 
quickly  recognized  the  economic  values  in  the  im- 
proved physical  surroundings. 

Good  natural  light  is  cheaper  than  artificial  il- 
lumination. Work  done  in  rooms  well  lighted  and 
heated  is  better  than  where  poorer  conditions  exist. 
These  men  observed  that  comfortable  chairs  en- 
abled girls  to  save  time  and  strength,  a  few  minutes' 
rest  restored  the  poise  of  high-strung  nerves  and 
sent  the  worker  back  to  her  task  refreshed — hence 
rest-rooms  for  women,  first  aid  to  the  injured  in  a 
well-equipped  hospital  room  saved  the  firm  many 
a  dollar,  and  loyalty  became  an  added  asset  to  the 
firm.  Can  you  count  on  your  men?  l>e  a^nivd 
some  form  of  welfare  work  is  going  on  between 
you.  Will  you  stand  by  your  employer?  then  you 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  13 

believe  in  welfare  work,  and  somebody  is  finding 
"  good  going  "  and  help  along  the  way. 


In  America. 

Early  in  1900  the  American  Institute  of  Social 
Service,  formed  of  men  and  women  interested  in 
improving  social  and  economic  conditions,  number- 
ing among  its  group  a  few  representatives  of  great 
industries,  stimulated  considerable  thought  on  the 
subject  of  Industrial  Betterment  by  bulletins,  lec- 
tures, and  public  meetings,  and  the  issuing  of  a 
magazine  called  "  Social  Service,"  chiefly  devoted 
to  welfare  work  in  industry:  In  1904  the  Welfare 
Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation  was 
formed  in  New  York,  with  a  directorate  represent- 
ing many  conspicuous  leaders  in  the  industrial 
world.  The  aim  of  the .  department  fairly  defined 
the  opportunities  in  the  field  already  entered  and 
wherein  fruit  was  already  enjoyed  by  leaders  in 
the  American  application  of  the  European  methods. 

But  the  great  and  growing  corporations  were 
not  waiting  for  either  of  these  organized  bodies 
to  point  the  way;  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
for  example,  has  been  operating  a  relief  depart- 
ment, pension,  and  savings  plan  for  twenty  years, 
while  as  early  as  1880  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railway  had  organized  its  Employees'  Relief  Asso- 
ciation, adding  a  pension  plan  in  1884,  and  in  1889 
the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  followed  with 
its  voluntary  relief  department. 


14  Social  Service  Series 

The  comptroller  of  the  Pennsylvania  road,  M. 
Riebenack,  said  in  1905,  in  his  book  on  "  Railway 
Provident  Institutions  in  English  Speaking  Coun- 
tries," that  railway  officials  are  generally  interested 
in  welfare  work  and  are  giving  it  close  observation 
and  study.  At  the  close  of  1903  the  expenditure 
of  the  road  during  the  single  year  for  provident 
work,  according  to  Mr.  Riebenack,  scheduled  as: 
relief  department,  pension  department,  hospital 
service,  savings  fund,  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation railway  branches  and  libraries  and  reading- 
rooms,  totaled  nine  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars, of  which  it  is  interesting  to  note  sixty-two  thou- 
sand dollars  was  administered  through  the  recog- 
nized channels  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

The  term  "  provident  institutions,"  as  used  by 
him,  may  well  be  interchanged  for  "  welfare  work," 
as  the  factors  are — so  the  author  says — the  chief 
avenues  from  which  are  drawn  the  most  desirable 
grounds  of  activity  between  employer  and  employee  ; 
the  chief  sources  which  are  the  means  of  directly 
improving  and  bettering  the  condition  of  the  em- 
ployee generally,  creating  and  sustaining  a  happy  co- 
operation between  these  two  inseparable  interests. 


What  is  welfare  work  in  detail? 

As  generally  defined,  welfare  work  compre- 
hends :  ( i )  Special  consideration  for  physical  health, 
safety,  and  comfort  wherever  labor  is  performed. 
(2)  Opportunity  for  recreation.  (3)  Educational 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  15 

advantages.  (4)  Provision  of  suitable  sanitary 
homes.  (5)  Provident  funds,  insurance,  pensions, 
savings,  loans,  etc. 

The  railroad  corporations  frankly  say  all  this 
work  is  generally  the  same,  and  the  problem  is  the 
application  to  the  local  industry  of  the  features 
which  will  help  solve  in  efficiency  and  happiness  the 
difficulties  of  production. 

Since  this  paper  is  confined  to  corporations,  I  can 
take  only  a  few  as  illustrations  and  leave  the  many 
concerns  that  have  multiplied  efforts,  and  through 
failure  and  success  are  finding  the  rational  way  to 
more  ideal  conditions  of  labor. 


National  Cash  Register  Company. 

In  the  Central  States  an  example  is  the  National 
Cash  Register  Company,  of  Dayton,  Ohio,  which  has 
done  very  comprehensive  work  in  years  past.  In 
1901  its  magazine,  the  "  N.  C.  R.,"  was  in  its  four- 
teenth volume — full  of  inspirational  subjects  for 
co-operative  team  work. 

In  a  civic  way  this  corporation  revolutionized  that 
part  of  Dayton,  where  the  factory  buildings  and 
grounds  to-day  are  truly  beautiful  with  flowers, 
gardens,  vines,  artificial  lake,  winding  paths,  hand- 
some structures,  and  trees.  This  is  a  constant  ob- 
ject-lesson to  the  employees  and  has  its  effect  on 
their  homes. 

Lunch-rooms,  educational  classes,  suggestion  sys- 
tem with  prizes,  children's  gardens,  outings,  maga- 


/  6  Social  Service  Series 

zines,  mottoes  on  the  walls — scores  of  things  were 
planned  and  put  in  operation  by  the  Pattersons  for 
the  small  army  of  men  and  women  who  were  con- 
cerned in  making  cash  registers. 

The  history  of  their  fifteen  or  more  years  of  prog- 
ress is  stimulating  reading  and,  like  the  old-fash- 
ioned story,  has  its  moral.  Perhaps  the  Pattersons 
were  "  ahead  of  the  times,"  perhaps  the  employees 
were  not  abreast,  and  perhaps  paternalism  was  too 
pronounced  for  the  wide-awake  Ohio  city;  but, 
whatever  the  philosophy,  the  facts  are  that  while 
welfare  work  decorated  it  did  not  here  cement. 
There  was  a  strike  of  the  employees ;  the  city  of  Day- 
ton was  backward  about  permitting  opportunities 
for  the  growth  of  the  factory  and  development  of 
the  grounds  which  Mr.  Patterson  thought  necessary, 
and  disappointment  and  bitterness  resulted.  Many 
of  the  "  extras  "  have  been  abandoned.  Experience 
suggests  slower  methods  of  acquaintance  and  less 
evidence  of  personal  oversight  into  the  life  of  the 
individual  worker  while  still  maintaining  scrupulous 
sanitary  care  of  the  physical  working  conditions,  re- 
taining nurses  and  physician  at  the  buildings,  con- 
tinuing the  allotment  of  gardens  in  summer,  and 
such  other  expressions  of  the  "  humanities  "  as  are 
apparently  welcomed  by  the  group  of  men  and 
women  workers. 

They  have  pioneered  admirable  work,  and  if  the 
pace  set  was  too  swift  for  the  crowd,  more  practical 
running  suggested  by  experience  justifies  certain 
staying  qualities. 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  17 

Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company. 

Quite  a  different  proposition  spread  before  a 
Western  corporation.  In  1900  the  Colorado  Fuel 
and  Iron  Company,  through  its  sociological  depart- 
ment, was  fusing  the  elements  in  its  diversified  field 
into  a  constituency  that  should  accomplish  fixed 
dividends  for  the  company  and  unlimited  returns  to 
the  seventeen  hundred  men  on  their  payrolls,  wel- 
fare work  having  been  carried  on  for  many  years 
previous,  but  without  organization.  Forty  proper- 
ties, consisting  of  various  mines,  rolling  mills,  and 
steel  plants  in  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  and  New 
Mexico,  formed  a  field  of  physical  magnitude  for 
the  social  work  which  presented  a  difficult  problem. 

How  they  established  schools  and  built  houses, 
organized  industrial  classes  and  exhibited  model 
homes,  circulated  libraries  and  gave  lectures  on  hy- 
giene and  sanitation,  built  clubhouses,  opened  a 
hospital — is  fascinating  reading  in  the  reports  of  Dr. 
Richard  W.  Corwin,  who,  as  general  manager  of  the 
sociological  department,  has  not  alone  done  pioneer 
welfare  work  in  the  United  States,  but  remains  a 
constant,  steady  promoter  of  the  things  that  "  help 
men  to  see  the  joy  in  their  work  for  its  own  sake." 

Doctor  Corwin  said :  "  Sociology  is  not  a  passing 
fancy  or  a  matter  of  sentiment.  It  is  in  an  evolu- 
tionary stage,  and  a  thing  to  be  carefully  worked  out 
in  its  many  phases.  Each  place  has  its  own  peculiar 
conditions  and  must  be  met  differently.  Even  that 
which  has  succeeded  one  season  meets  with  failure 


18  Social  Service  Series 

the  next.     The  effect  of  social  betterment  may  be 
seen  at  once,  but  its  greatest  good  comes  later." 


Cleveland  Cliffs  Iron  Company. 

Up  in  northern  Michigan  the  Cleveland  Cliffs  Iron 
Company  is  interpreting  a  spirit  of  practical  good 
will  through  welfare  work  under  the  direction  of  a 
social  secretary.  Workmen's  insurance,  visiting 
nurses,  first  aid  to  the  injured,  and  social  clubhouses 
are  some  of  the  avenues  through  which  the  stream 
of  human  interest  flows  with  no  sentimental  gush, 
but  with  steady  practical  purpose  to  make  better 
working  and  living  conditions  for  workmen  who 
shall  in  turn  render  more  efficient  service. 

New  York  City  Railway  Company. 

In  teeming  New  York  the  City  Railway  Com- 
pany is  doing  practical  work  under  the  guiding 
hand  of  its  president,  Herbert  H.  Vreeland,  in  its 
clubrooms  for  men,  its  relief  association,  and 
library  privileges. 

Chicago  Telephone  Company. 

The  Chicago  Telephone  Company,  with  its  small 
army  of  young  women  operators,  disclaims  doing 
welfare  work,  but  a  visit  to  some  of  their  offices 
refutes  the  statement.  Rest-rooms  and  lunch-rooms, 
hospital  rooms  and  nurse,  choral  society  and  promo- 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  1 9 

tion  plans,  prizes  and  libraries,  educational  talks  and 
a  benefit  association,  all  are  phases  of  welfare  work, 
call  them  by  what  name  you  choose. 


International  Harvester  Company. 

When  the  McCormick  Harvester  Company  com- 
menced operating  a  twine  mill  with  female  work- 
ers, they  employed  a  matron  to  have  charge  of  a 
lunch-room  and  rest-room  for  these  girls,  who  were 
largely  foreign  born  and  non-English  speaking,  and 
the  present  organized  welfare  work  of  the  Inter- 
national Harvester  Company  has  been  an  evolution 
from  the  beginnings  in  1900  promoted  at  the  Mc- 
Cormick works  by  Miss  Gertrude  Beeks,  now  secre- 
tary of  the  welfare  department  of  the  National 
Civic  Federation. 

Since  the  formation  of  the  International  Har- 
vester Company,  with  the  co-ordinating  of  fifteen 
or -more  different  plants  in  several  States,  welfare 
work  has  come  quietly  to  be  considered  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  organization.  No  frills,  the  prac- 
tical men  of  the  management  say,  but  human  in- 
terest one  with  another,  safety  and  sanity,  thrift 
and  thoroughness,  industry  and  ideals.  That  it  is 
not  a  thing  "  put  on "  with  the  Harvester  Com- 
pany, but  really  put  into  the  inner  executive  prin- 
ciples, is  shown  by  the  present  Advisory  Board  of 
Welfare,  consisting  of  all  the  superintendents  of  the 
works,  one  man  from  the  executive  staff,  one  so- 
ciological specialist,  and  one  business-trained  wo- 


20  Social  Service  Series 

man,  all  experienced  in  the  industry.  From  the 
experience  of  others  they  welcome  counsel  and 
example  to  add  to  their  own  initiative  in  the  ex- 
traneous subjects  composing  a  limitless  field  for 
welfare  work  in  this  corporation,  and  in  what  the 
officers  term  the  primary  essentials — sanitation  and 
safety — they  focus  the  thought  of  the  best  skill  they 
can  discover  and  employ. 

An  executive  committee  elected  from  this  Board 
meets  at  frequent  intervals  to  review  conditions,  re- 
ceive reports,  and  consider  suggestions  on  any  phase 
of  welfare  relating  to  either  one  or  all  of  the 
several  groups  of  employees  of  the  company.  The 
scope  of  this  committee  comprises  pensions,  work- 
ing-men's insurance,  savings,  profit  sharing,  indus- 
trial education,  housing,  recreations,  and  neighbor- 
hood civics,  as  well  as  primary  working  conditions 
of  safety  and  sanitation,  and  the  work  promoted 
aims  to  be  practical  and  permanent,  emphasizing 
the  importance  of  having  the  men  "  with  you." 

Where  women  are  working  a  matron  is  employed 
to  have  charge  of  the  special  accommodations  pro- 
vided for  them  in  the  way  of  toilet-rooms,  lockers, 
dressing-rooms,  and  rest-rooms.  She  co-operates 
with  department  foremen  in  enforcement  of  all 
shop  rules,  paying  special  attention  to  instructions 
regarding  wearing  apparel,  carelessness  in  working 
about  machinery,  and  the  personal  conduct  of  a 
girl  with  her  co-workers.  If  a  girl  is  wearing  a 
ragged  sleeve,  a  torn  skirt,  or  loose  apron-string. 
the  matron  explains  to  her  the  danger  of  getting 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  21 

caught  by  these  loose  ends  while  moving  about  her 
swift-running  machine,  even  though  the  dangerous 
parts  of  the  machines  are  well  safeguarded.  She 
has,  at  the  same  time,  an  opportunity  to  give  many 
lessons  on  order  and  neatness — lessons  which  help 
to  make  the  factory  girl  a  more  efficient  housewife 
when  she  leaves  the  mill  to  marry  and  to  make 
a  home,  as  the  majority  do. 

Not  alone  does  the  matron  assist  in  maintaining 
good  sanitary  and  safety  conditions,  but  she  takes 
charge  of  the  lunch-rooms  provided  for  the  girls. 
Coffee  is  served  at  the  noon  intermission  in  a 
pleasant  room  where  all  the  girls  are  required  to 
assemble,  and  the  coffee  may  be  bought  at  one  or 
two  cents  per  cup;  or,  if  the  girl  prefers,  she  may 
bring  her  coffee  and  luncheon  from  home.  If  the 
girls  live  at  home  or  in  boarding-houses  they  usually 
bring  a  luncheon  with  them,  which  they  supple- 
ment by  a  piece  of  pie  or  fruit  at  one  or  two  cents, 
or  occasionally  in  hot  weather,  ice-cream  may  be 
bought  for  about  the  same  price.  A  full  dinner  may 
be  bought  for  from  eight  to  fifteen  cents,  the 
quality  being  absolutely  good  and  the  quantity  suf- 
ficient for  the  appetite  of  the  sturdiest. 

It  is  to  the  matron  that  a  girl  goes  who  is  ill  or 
meets  with  a  minor  accident  or  has  a  grievance,  and 
she  recognizes  in  her  a  friend  and  helper.  She  must 
be  a  woman  of  poise  and  judgment,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities are  limitless  that  come  to  her  for  helping  to 
lubricate  the  wheels  that  form  the  invisible  gearing 
among  a  group  of  women  of  different  ages  and  dif- 


22  Social  Service  Series 

ferent  nationalities, — the  foremen  with  the  necessary 
instructions  which  shall  bring  about  efficient  work, 
the  home  environment  which  influences  the  health 
and  spirits  of  the  women  workers,  the  recreations 
after  hours  which  help  to  make  or  mar  the  life — in 
all  these  the  matron  may  become,  and  does  become, 
a  potent  factor  for  good.  If  she  can  speak  more 
than  one  language  she  is  better  equipped  for  service 
than  if  confined  to  English,  and  the  greater  knowl- 
edge she  has  of  machinery  and  the  principles  of 
hygiene  and  sanitation,  coupled  with  a  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  the  output,  and  with  all  the  rest  a  vital 
sense  of  human  interest  in  her  fellow-workers,  the 
more  service  will  she  be  able  to  render  to  the  com- 
pany, to  the  employees,  and  to  the  widespread  socio- 
logical betterment  movement. 

The  moral  force  of  a  good  matron  associated  with 
the  women  workers  as  a  principle  of  the  managing 
organization  is  not  to  be  underestimated.  The  Har- 
vester Company  recognizes  the  obligation  which 
comes  with  the  increasing  number  of  women  work- 
ers, and  demands  a  high  standard  of  moral  protec- 
tion as  well  as  safeguarded  machinery,  superior  ven- 
tilation, available  seats  in  workrooms,  etc. 

The  primary  work  of  the  matron  is  in  the  factory, 
but  she,  in  co-operation  with  the  visiting  nurses, 
opens  many  ways  of  friendship  and  social  progress 
to  the  working  girls  who,  during  their  eight  or  ten 
hours  of  labor,  are  under  her  supervision. 

Three  visiting  nurses  are  now  employed  at 
the  expense  of  the  company,  their  entire  time  be- 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  23 

ing  spent  in  visiting  sick  or  disabled  employees 
or  members  of  their  families.  They  follow  up  at 
the  homes  the  care  the  doctor  has  given  at  the 
emergency  hospital  at  the  works.  They  dress  a 
burn  or  bandage  a  wound  or  give  a  typhoid-fever 
patient  a  bath,  take  care  of  a  sick  mother,  or  trans- 
fer a  convalescent  to  some  camp  or  home,  get  a  tent 
for  a  tubercular  boy  or  a  porch  bed  for  some  failing 
girl,  teaching  sanitation  and  protection  and  blessed 
humanity  as  they  go  their  neighborly,  useful  rounds. 
The  nurse  does  in  a  hundred  ways  the  kindly  acts 
that  each  man  wants  to  do  for  his  employee  and  his 
neighbor,  but  which  must  in  the  large  corporation 
be  "by  representation  "  or  be  left  wholly  uncared 
for  and  undone. 

First-aid  or  emergency  hospitals  are,  at  all  the 
large  works,  in  charge  of  trained  nurses  or  gradu- 
ate physicians.  No  matter  how  slight  the  injury 
sustained,  an  employee  who  is  hurt  is  expected  to  go 
to  the  first-aid  room  for  attention.  The  prompt  at- 
tention saves  the  man  in  many  cases  from  serious 
results,  by  preventing  infection  and  inflammation. 
This  service  is  at  no  expense  to  the  employee,  who, 
after  emergency  care,  is  frequently  able  to  go  back 
to  his  work  without  delay. 

At  smaller  works  first-aid  boxes  are  found  in 
places  indicated,  usually  foremen's  offices,  and  a 
number  of  men  are  trained  to  give  efficient  first- 
aid  service.  Lectures  are  given  from  time  to  time 
by  physicians  to  classes  of  picked  men,  and  the 
elementary  steps  of  "  what  to  do  till  the  doctor 


24  Social  Service  Series 

comes  "  are  carefully  taught  by  text  and  illustra- 
tion. 

But  while  immediate  care  and  full  follow-up 
service  is  adequate  and  good,  the  stronger  policy 
is  the  one  of  preventing  the  accident  or  the  sickness, 
in  so  far  as  factory  conditions  can  be  made  safe  and 
civic  living  environment  influenced.  To  arrive  at 
the  best  conditions  employer  and  employee  must 
work  together.  It  is  an  obligation  upon  the  em- 
ployer to  provide  safeguards,  but  they  avail  but 
little  if  the  employee  will  not  conform  to  the  order 
of  things  and  use  the  guards  and  the  means  of 
protection  against  accident.  Signs  are  posted,  bulle- 
tins are  distributed  from  time  to  time,  descriptions 
of  actual  accidents  and  how  they  might  have  been 
avoided  are  circulated,  and  books  of  rules  printed 
in  different  languages  are  in  the  hands  of  every 
employee. 

Originally  the  propaganda  against  accidents  was 
in  self-defense  with  all  companies  that  used  ma- 
chinery, but  in  recent  years  it  has  broadened  out 
into  more  humanitarian  lines,  and  the  work  of 
prevention  in  most  of  the  large  corporations  is  at 
present  being  taken  upon  a  scale  that  could  not 
have  been  dreamed  of  in  this  country  a  few  years 
ago. 

In  every  one  of  the  Harvester  factories  there  is 
an  expert  inspector  detailed  to  the  subject  of  safety. 
At  some  works,  in  addition  to  the  special  inspector, 
there  is  a  safety  committee,  charged  with  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  entire  plant,  and  such  committee 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  25 

devotes  time  each  week  to  hearing  the  reports  of  the 
inspector  or  inspectors,  to  studying  the  causes  of 
accidents  and  devising  means  to  prevent  their  repe- 
tition. Guards  are  constantly  being  improved  and 
new  ones  devised.  The  technical  features  of  this 
work,  a  statement  of  the  rules,  the  specification  of 
the  danger  points,  and  lists  of  appliances  for  pro- 
tecting saws,  gears,  cranes,  elevators,  etc.,  would 
make  a  volume  only  interesting  to  the  men  who  are 
in  contact  with  the  work.  The  spirit  is  evident — 
progress  and  prevention — and  if  the  alert  body  of 
men  who  are  engaging  so  much  of  their  time  on 
this  important  subject  fail  to  show  a  decrease  in 
the  percentage  of  accidents,  it  will  not  be  because 
of  indifference  or  inefficiency.  Statistics  borrowed 
from  the  older  countries  show  that  more  than  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  industrial  acci- 
dents are  recognized  as  a  natural  hazard  of  in- 
dustry and  non-preventable.  It  is  said  that  one- 
third  of  all  accidents  are  directly  chargeable  to  care- 
lessness or  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  workers 
themselves.  The  rules  and  cautions,  concerning 
which  all  employees  are  urged  to  inform  themselves, 
should  show  an  appreciable  lessening  of  disability 
accidents  with  their  consequent  social  and  economic 
waste. 


The  Great  Steel  Corporations. 

This  great  welfare  subject  is  receiving  an  unlimited 
study  by  all  corporations — notably,  besides  the  Har- 


26  Social  Service  Series 

vaster  Company  and  the  railroads,  the  Illinois  Steel 
Company  and  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation. 
The  latter  company  organized  within  a  year  a  central 
safety  committee  to  which  local  safety  committees 
in  the  subsidiary  companies  report  at  stated  and 
frequent  intervals.  Drawings,  photographs,  rules, 
models,  specifications,  and  reports  are  considered, 
and,  through  the  committee,  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  entire  group.  It  is  felt  that  the  attitude  of 
the  men  throughout  the  plants  toward  safety  matters 
has  changed  favorably  since  these  committees  were 
established.  A  recent  number  of  "  The  Survey  " 
contains  a  comprehensive  article  on  some  of  the 
concrete  evidences  of  safety  provisions  in  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation. 

It  is  true  that  legislation  is  actively  interested 
in  the  subject,  but  the  remedy  for  the  woes  of  the 
casualty  list  is  coming  from  the  corporations  them- 
selves, through  their  safety  inspectors  and  safety 
committees  and  the  spirit  of  fellow-servant  respon- 
sibility which  must  be  instilled  in  the  minds  and 
expressed  in  the  conduct  of  the  employees. 

On  May  first  of  1910  the  Steel  Corporation  in- 
stalled a  plan  for  relief  of  men  injured  and  for 
the  families  of  men  killed  in  work  accidents.  It 
stated  in  its  announcement  that  the  payments  it 
proposes  are  for  relief  and  not  as  compensation. 
Definite  standards  of  compensation  are  set,  and  it 
is  proposed  to  carry  out  a  consistent  policy  of  med- 
ical and  hospital  treatment  and  relief  adjustment, 
which  shows  a  distinct  advance  in  the  attitude  of 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  27 

corporations  to  the  subject  and  is  quite  in  advance 
of  all  present  legislation. 


The  International  Harvester  Company  Benefit  As- 
sociation. 

The  Harvester  Company's  Employees'  Benefit  As- 
sociation was  organized  September  I,  1908,  and  has 
a  membership  of  over  twenty-five  thousand  men 
and  women.  According  to  the  plans,  the  company 
made  a  contribution  sufficient  to  cover  all  expenses 
of  administration,  necessary  hospital  care,  physi- 
cians, etc.,  and  guaranteed  the  fund,  and  employees 
joining  it  voluntarily  paid  to  the  association  two  per 
cent,  of  their  wages,  payable  on  each  pay-day.  The 
plan  of  the  association  covers  benefits  in  case  of 
disability  from  either  sickness  or  accident,  and  a 
certain  sum  in  case  of  death  from  any  cause  except 
drunkenness  or  disorderly  habits,  no  discrimination 
being  made  between  accidents  at  work  or  not.  The 
much-discussed  release  clause  was  omitted  from  the 
plans  of  the  association,  and  an  employee  disabled 
by  accident  at  work  was  privileged  to  draw  benefits 
and  still  proceed  legally  against  the  company  if  he 
chose. 

As  late  as  May,  1910,  an  advance  was  made  on  the 
already  liberal  plan  of  the  Benefit  Association  by 
creating  an  Industrial  Accident  Department.  A 
special  feature  of  the  plan  is  a  clause  prohibiting  the 
payment  of  benefits  where  the  injury  is  due  to  the 
intoxication  of  the  employee  or  to  his  failure  to 


28  Social  Service  Series 

utilize  the  safety  appliances  provided  by  the  com- 
pany, or  to  gross  or  wilful  misconduct.  The  com- 
pany, without  any  contribution  from  the  employees, 
under  this  plan,  will  pay,  on  account  of  accidents  at 
work: 

In  case  of  death :  Three  years'  average  wages,  but 
not  less  than  fifteen  hundred  dollars  nor  more  than 
four  thousand  dollars. 

In  case  of  loss  of  hand  or  foot:  One  and  one- 
half  years'  average  wages,  but  in  no  event  less  than 
five  hundred  dollars  nor  more  than  two  thousand 
dollars. 

In  case  of  loss  of  one  eye:  Three-fourths  of  the 
average  yearly  wages. 

In  case  of  other  injuries :  One- fourth  wages  dur- 
ing the  first  thirty  days  of  disability;  if  disability 
continues  beyond  thirty  days,  one-half  wages  during 
the  continuance  thereof,  but  not  for  more  than  one 
hundred  and  four  weeks  from  the  date  of  the  acci- 
dent. Thereafter,  if  total  disability  continues  a  pen- 
sion will  be  paid. 

The  one-fourth  wages  paid  by  the  company  during 
the  first  thirty  days  of  disability  will  be  increased  to 
half -wages  in  favor  of  employees  who  make  the 
following  contributions : 

Employees  earning  fifty  dollars  a  month,  or  less, 
six  cents  per  month;  more  than  fifty  dollars  and 
less  than  one  hundred  dollars,  eight  cents  per  month  ; 
more  than  one  hundred  dollars,  ten  cents  per  month. 

It  is  estimated  that  these  contributions,  together 
with  the  one-fourth  wages  paid  by  the  company,  will 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations 

ifficient  to  provide  half-pay  for  all  injured  em- 
ployees during  the  first  thirty  days  of  disability.  If 
experience  shows  that  the  employees'  contributions 
are  more  than  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  then  the 
employees'  contributions  will  be  reduced  accord- 
ingly. 

Deductions  to  cover  the  employees'  contributions 
for  benefits  during  the  first  thirty  days  of  dis- 
ability under  this  plan  will  (unless  the  employee 
gives  to  the  works  superintendent  or  Board  of  Man- 
agement written  notice  to  the  contrary)  be  made 
from  the  employees'  wages  on  regular  pay-days  on 
the  following  basis:  Employees  earning  fifty  dollars 
or  less  per  month,  six  cents  per  month;  earning 
more  than  fifty  dollars  and  less  than  one  hundred 
dollars  per  month,  eight  cents  per  month;  earning 
more  than  one  hundred  dollars  per  month,  ten  cents 
per  month. 

The  company  earnestly  desires  the  co-operation 
of  its  employees  in  the  payment  of  benefits  for  the 
first  thirty  days  of  disability,  because  it  wishes  every 
employee  to  assist  in  the  prevention  of  accidents. 
The  company  has  expended  large  sums  in  safe- 
guarding machinery  and  in  the  effort  to  protect  its 
employees  from  injury,  but  without  the  active  co- 
operation of  the  employees  many  accidents  cannot 
be  avoided.  Under  this  plan  the  company  and  the 
employees  equally  divide  the  pa)'ment  of  benefits 
during  the  first  thirty  days  of  disability,  and  thus 
every  employee  becomes  financially  interested  in 
guarding  against  accidents  and  in  seeing  that  his 


30  Social  Service  Series 

fellow- workmen  are  equally  careful.  It  is  hoped 
that  this  mutual  interest  will  lead  to  active  co-opera- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  employees,  and  that  thereby 
accidents  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

Records  show  that  sickness  disability  is  a  greater 
economic  loss  to  a  wage-earner  than  is  accident  dis- 
ability, and  members  of  the  Employees'  Benefit 
Association,  by  monthly  payments  of  one  and  one- 
half  per  cent,  of  their  wages,  are  entitled  to  sick 
benefits  for  a  term  of  fifty-two  weeks,  or  for  acci- 
dent benefits  if  accident  occurred  outside  of  work. 
The  details  of  these  plans  were  the  result  of  study 
on  both  continents,  and  while  administered  by  em- 
ployees elected  jointly  with  members  appointed,  are 
financially  guaranteed  by  the  company. 

Pensions. 

September  i,  1908,  also  saw  the  inauguration  of 
a  pension  plan,  toward  which  the  employees  make 
no  contribution,  but  which  promises  a  fixed  life  in- 
come to  an  employee  who  has  been  in  service  twenty 
years  and  is  fifty  years  old,  if  a  woman,  or  sixty-five 
if  a  man.  The  directors  in  their  announcement  say 
it  is  an  evidence  of  their  appreciation  of  the  fidelity, 
efficiency,  and  loyalty  of  their  employees  who,  by 
long  and  faithful  service,  have  earned  honorable  re- 
tirement. 

More  than  fifty  employees  have  been  retired  on 
pensions  which,  according  to  the  plan,  shall  not  be 
less  than  eighteen  dollars  a  month  or  exceed  one 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  31 

hundred  dollars,  the  rate  of  allowance  being  one  per 
cent,  for  each  year  of  service  of  the  average  pay 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  employment. 

Profit  sharing. 

Profit  sharing  is  also  available  to  the  wage-earners 
on  definite  plans  for  subscribing  and  paying  for 
stock  on  monthly  instalments,  interest  and  profits 
to  follow  the  stock,  and  co-operation  which  must 
be  real,  growing  naturally. 

Clubhouses. 

As  to  clubhouses,  they  may  be  found  in  Chicago 
at  the  McCormick  and  Deering  Works.  Expendi- 
tures of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
have  built  and  equipped  these  spacious  buildings 
for  the  social  use  of  the  employees  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. They  are  managed  by  committees  elected 
from  the  factory  by  the  men,  the  company  placing 
the  properties  at  their  disposal  without  rentals  or 
charges  for  heating  or  light. 

There  are  libraries  and  classrooms,  billiard  tables 
and  bowling  alleys,  shooting  galleries  and  gymna- 
sium apparatus,  dining-rooms  and  shower-baths, 
and  an  audience  room  which  may  serve  for  a  mass 
meeting,  a  lecture,  a  moving-picture  show,  or  a 
dance. 

Without  liquor  and  with  gambling  forbidden,  with 
the  men  on  their  honor  to  keep  their  own  recrea- 
tion centers  first  class,  these  factory  assembly 


32  Social  Service  Series 

houses  are  proving  safe  and  enjoyable  additions 
to  the  social  life  of  many  workers.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  problem  of  speech  in  different  nationalities 
represented  at  the  Chicago  works,  they  would  doubt- 
less attract  many  more.  Where  factories  are  not 
located  in  large  cities  the  social  problem  is  not  so 
difficult.  There  is  more  fusion  of  the  people  in 
a  small  town.  Where  neighbors  have  the  same  in- 
terests in  work  they  have  central  interests  in  the 
affairs  of  life  that  surround  work,  schools,  parks, 
churches,  assembly  halls,  and  the  like  are  accessible 
to  all  and  common  to  all.  Children  play  together, 
grow  up  together,  work  and  live  without  distinc- 
tions of  class  or  condition,  and  co-operative  plans 
are  more  readily  understood  and  their  factors  as- 
similated. 

Small  clubrooms  toward  the  equipment  of  which 
employees  and  the  company  contribute,  athletic  fields 
set  aside  from  corporation  property,  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  a  common  meeting  ground  in  a  number  of 
smaller  cities  where  the  Harvester  corporation  has 
a  factory  located.  The  mutual  acquaintance  and 
the  better  understanding  which  these  social  oppor- 
tunities afford  is  considered  ample  justification  or 
explanation  for  the  interest  manifested  on  the  part 
of  employers  in  the  extension  of  recreation  oppor- 
tunities. The  spirit  of  play  is  recognized  as  advan- 
tageous to  a  man's  working  efficiency,  and  it  is  not 
unusual  to  find  one  or  more  of  the  officers  of  the 
company  joining  in  sports  or  outings  with  the  men 
of  the  factory,  who  are  sometimes  called  "  the 


Welfare  Work  by  Corporations  33 

hands,"  but  whom  the  president  of  the  Harvester 
Company  referred  to  at  the  dedication  of  the  Deer- 
ing  Clubhouse  as  "  members  of  our  firm." 

To  fully  appreciate  what  the  clubhouses  may 
mean  they  should  be  seen  when  the  men  are  there 
with  their  families,  or  when  the  classes  are  in  ses- 
sion on  one  floor  and  an  exciting  bowling  contest 
is  on  in  the  basement,  or  when  the  pretty  foreign 
girls  of  the  twine  mill  or  foundry  core-room  are 
giving  a  dance  in  the  assembly  hall. 

One  group  finds  an  expression  outside  of  working 
hours  through  the  clubhouses,  another  seeks  some 
other  avenue.  In  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  the  girls  em- 
ployed in  the  twine  mill  and  their  matron  co-operate 
with  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
using  their  library  and  competing  in  contests  in 
the  association  gymnasium. 

At  one  factory  you  will  find  trees  and  vines  and 
flower-beds;  at  another,  shower-baths  and  soap  and 
towels — sanitary  drinking-cups  here  and  sanitary 
spittoons  there — a  shop  class  in  mathematics  in 
working  hours  at  one  Chicago  plant,  and  at  another 
a  few  foreign  men  learning  English  at  a  settlement 
house  maintained  by  corporation  money.  Lunch- 
rooms are  available  wherever  groups  can  be  formed 
and  the  need  is  evidenced. 


0 u  tings. 

In  Milwaukee  there  is  a  distinct  civic  note  of 
progress   in   good-fellowship   when   the   Harvester 


34  Social  Service  Scries 

Band  draws  a  complimentary  crowd  of  twenty  thou- 
sand to  hear  a  concert  in  the  park  of  a  summer 
evening. 

No  excursion  goes  to  Niagara  Falls  in  the  sum- 
mer more  electric  with  good  spirits  of  the  fifteen 
hundred  men  and  their  families  than  the  picnic 
group  of  the  Hamilton,  Canada,  Harvester  em- 
ployees. 

In  Auburn  it  was  the  Italian  orchestra,  assembled 
from  the  machines  and  the  flax  bales,  that  made  glad 
the  day  before  Christmas  noon  hour,  and  at  the 
Deering  Twine  Mill  when,  on  Washington's  birth- 
day, the  matron  arranged  a  little  dance  in  the  mill 
from  five  to  eight  o'clock,  the  girls  thought  it  was 
to  remember  her  birthday.  And  the  foremen  all 
stayed  and  helped  to  make  a  happy  time — joy  in 
work — welfare  or  good  going. 

Not  philanthropy,  these  corporations  say — not 
charity — just  common  sense  applied  with  honest 
purpose  and  a  little  money.  It's  good  business. 
Verily,  one  may  read  behind  the  words  and  recall, 
"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  " 


Purpose  of  welfare  work. 

Christian  men  are  at  the  wheel  of  many  of  the 
corporations  as  well  as  smaller  business  interests. 
They  are  men  of  long  vision,  and  they  glimpse  the 
future  and  steadily  trim  the  ships  for  ports  of  suc- 
cess to  make  harbor  with  all  hands  on  board. 


Welfare  Work  fe/  Corporations  35 

It  is  more  than  probable,  for  instance,  that  the  In- 
ternational Harvester  Company  men  have  heard  in 
their  lifelong  association  with  harvest  fields  that 
scriptural  doctrine,  "  As  a  man  sows,  so  shall  he 
reap,"  and  in  their  fields,  which  are  the  great  works 
where  the  machines  and  twine  and  engines  come 
forth  by  daily  wages  of  toil,  these  men  are  sowing 
for  industrial  efficiency  and  for  a  fuller  representa- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  gladness  as  expressed  by  the 
sage:  ''There  is  nothing  better  than  that  a  man 
should  rejoice  in  his  own  works,  for  that  is  his  por- 
tion." 

To  give  a  list  of  the  corporations  and  firms  in  the 
United  States  that  are  doing  some  sort  of  welfare 
work  would  be  like  compiling  a  city  directory. 

The  majority  is  in  one  way  or  another  expressing 
a  human  interest  that  is  real — that  is  valued  as  un- 
derstood by  the  employers,  by  the  labor  unions,  by 
the  individual  workers,  and  by  the  home-keepers 
and  home-makers — the  wives  and  children. 

Sane,  wholesome  welfare  work  is  in  the  labor 
horoscope  to  stay,  and  as  students  and  practical  men 
and  women,  men  of  finance  and  men  of  labor  leader- 
ship co-operate  together,  brotherhood  finds  a  way 
into  expressive  life,  whether  it  is  by  whitewash  on 
a  wall,  a  safeguard  on  a  machine,  a  pension  for  an 
old  man,  or  protection  of  morals  for  a  factory  girl. 

It's  not  a  fad,  it's  real  purpose,  and  if  the  dignity 
of  labor  is  upheld  anew  by  the  improving  environ- 
ment and  the  hope  of  the  future  is  made  more  as- 
sured by  this  concrete  expression  of  what,  for  want 


36  Social  Service  Series 

of  a  better  term,  we  call  welfare  work,  the  fail- 
ures will  be  counted  but  as  helps  toward  ideals,  and 
the  successes  will  be  reckoned  as  worth  the  patient 
endeavor  of  all. 

Is  welfare  work  worth  while?  Does  it  pay?  Is 
honest  endeavor  good  for  a  man?  Is  life  worth 
the  trouble?  Does  the  sun  shine? 

Then  I  say,  pass  on  the  salutation,  "  How  goes 
it?  "  and  listen  to  the  answer,  "  Welfare  work  means 
good  going,"  and  as  we  are  fellow-travelers  toward 
eternity,  let  us  lay  hold  on  what  shall  make  smooth 
the  path — not  you  for  me,  not  the  employer  for  the 
employee,  but  with  one  another.  It  pays — real  dol- 
lar-and-cent  dividends,  and  real  values  that  cannot 
be  measured  by  yardstick  or  weighing  scale.  It's 
common  sense  and  good  business  and  sentiment  and 
living  religion  all  fused  in  the  one  caldron  of  oppor- 
tunity. 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(510)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


1995 


30IH-6/H 


YB  19053 


GENERAL  LIBRARY -U.C.  BERKELEY 


BODDflbLbMfl 


;. 


